The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Or, at least in the case of an at-the-time 15-year-old Asher Belsky, the annoying kid in the audience gets the chance to perform onstage with his idol.

During a 2021 show at San Francisco’s iconic Black Cat jazz club, Belsky took advantage of the venue’s lack of a green room to approach that night’s performer: Isaiah Sharkey, a virtuoso guitarist who has toured in bands alongside D’Angelo and John Mayer.

“I was a very tenacious kid,” said Belsky, a senior who is majoring in popular music performance. “If you ask [Sharkey], he’d probably tell you the same thing: ‘This kid wouldn’t stop bugging me.’ But he said yes and let me sit in with him the next night.”

That night, Belsky’s solo over Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” at the Black Cat not only proved to 187,000 YouTube viewers that Belsky was a phenom, but it also proved to himself that playing guitar was his calling.

“I got to go up on stage and get my ass kicked by him; that was the most amazing thing,” Belsky said.

Five years later, his peers at the Thornton School of Music still remember first seeing him online.

“He’s a bit of a prodigy,” said Trey Miles, a senior guitarist majoring in popular music.
“I’d seen his videos online, I’d seen him playing with [Sharkey].”

Regardless of his reputation, Belsky has never let his musical talent define him: Coming to USC and being in Los Angeles seemed like the natural progression for not only his music career, but for his development as a young adult.

“USC has been more about going to college for four years and figuring stuff out,” Belsky said. “Going to class, skipping class, dealing with the repercussions of skipping class — it’s a life-learning opportunity.”

A native of San Francisco, Belsky has a long line of guitar legends to look up to, including Jerry Garcia and Santana. His biggest inspiration, however, hailed from a different coastal city: The Beatles have been a constant throughout Belsky’s musical life, first serving as a way to bond with his dad before becoming enough of a shared passion among fellow students to start a cover band.

“My taste has regressed into what originally got me into music,” Belsky said. “I had so many things I wanted to be when I was little, and I think the Beatles really just personified that.”

What Belsky learned most from the band’s music was the importance of personal growth and progression, whether that be in his playing style or his skillset as a musician.

“They never had one sound; each record was completely different,” Belsky said.

According to Belsky, one of his most rewarding projects so far has been the band Air Base Parkway, which was formed with four other, now-graduated, Thornton students. Despite juggling the schedules of multiple professional musicians, the group released their self-titled debut album in 2025 and have continued to play intermittent shows around L.A.

“With [Air Base Parkway], it was, ‘That sounds great! What if we did this?’” Belsky said. “It was very back and forth. That’s the cool thing about going to a school where you’re in a major with 40 other people and you have to create a working relationship with them.”

What started as Belsky asking a classmate for production help on his own songs turned into a balancing act of featuring the band’s three guitarists and vocalists in a live setting — but Belsky has plans to return to solo material soon.

Self-described as “the Beatles meets Steve Lacy,” the new songs en route for next spring will be his first since 2021. Now in his last year at USC, Belsky not only has four years of music education and peer collaboration behind him, but also experiences including sitting in with Sharkey and recording on Brent Faiyaz’s latest record.

Not having ever played in a studio session before, Belsky was invited to Faiyaz’s studio by Raphael Saadiq, an accomplished producer and member of Thornton’s Creative Vanguard Program.

“[Saadiq] sat there with me in this little room and he told me, ‘I want you to lay it back just a little bit,’” Belsky said. “[Faiyaz] came in and said it was cool.”

After a few takes perfecting the R&B feel, Belsky finally arrived at the guitar track for “other side.” The song has almost 40 million streams, which Belsky humbly called a “cool life experience.”

“I really feel like I’ve seen his growth a lot in production and songwriting,” said Bailey Thomas, a senior majoring in popular music performance and the bassist for their Beatles cover band. “He’s kind of exploded into having his own style.”

Style — independent from skill — means a lot more to Belsky than just how he plays his instrument: He approaches his relationships offstage with just as much intention as his set lists.

“Music has always been something that’s so familiar and personal and rooted for me,” Belsky said. “Showing up for your friends, helping them when they need it, being a human being — that’s something I’ve tried to foster a little bit more here [at USC].”

Behind the final product of a mix or a performance, Belsky makes sure to focus on his intention as an artist.

“I play music and not just because it’s fun,” Belsky said, “but because it’s supposed to mean something.”